BBC Singers - About The Orchestra

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Biography

As a vital resource in the BBC's music output, the BBC Singers hold a unique position in British musical life. Performing everything from Byrd to Birtwistle, Tallis to Takemitsu, the versatility of this 24-voice ensemble is second to none.

The choir's unrivalled expertise in performing the latest contemporary scores has brought about creative relationships with some of the most important composers and conductors of the 20th and 21st centuries - including Poulenc, Britten and Boulez.

Full biography of the BBC Singers

Associate Composer: Gabriel Jackson

Composer in Association: Gabriel Jackson. Photo credit: Katie Vandyck

Gabriel Jackson was born in Bermuda in 1962. After three years as a chorister at Canterbury Cathedral, he studied composition at the Royal College of Music, first with Richard Blackford and later with John Lambert, gaining his BMus in 1983. While at the College he was awarded the R.O. Morris Prize for Composition in 1981 and 1983, also winning the Theodore Holland Award in 1981. In 1992 he was awarded an Arts Council Bursary.

His music has been performed and broadcast throughout Europe and the USA, and in recent years has been heard in Cape Town, Ho Chi Minh City, Kiev, Kuwait, Sydney, Tokyo and Vancouver. His works have been presented at many festivals in the UK and beyond, including Aldeburgh, Cheltenham, ThreeTwo (New York), Lek Art 2000 & 2004 (Culemborg), ppIANISSIMO (Sofia), Haarlem Choir Biennale, Europa Cantat, Festival Vancouver, Festival ProBaltica, as well as Spitalfields and Meltdown in London. His liturgical pieces are in the repertoires of many of Britain's leading cathedral and collegiate choirs. In 2003 he won the liturgical category at the inaugural British Composer Awards.

He became the BBC Singers Associate Composer in January 2010.